Scotland's Brick and Tile Manufacturing Industry

Found in the Melrose, Scottish Borders area. Morningside Fireclay Works, Wishaw, Lanarkshire. . . . .

04/10/1879 – West Lothian Courier – On Monday a somewhat alarming explosion of fire damp took place at the Star Pit, Glenboig but was fortunately unattended with serious results. Hitherto the regular fire clay workings have been entirely free from damp but some had been generated during the driving of a mine through an upthrow….

Below – Information – British Geological Survey – Indian Kyanite. Indian kyanite supplied to the Glenboig Union Fireclay Company Limited 18.2.37 Indian kyanite supplied to the Glenboig Union Fireclay Company Limited 18.2.37 Kyanite is a mineral composed of aluminium silicate. It belongs to the triclinic crystal system and generally forms elongated tabular crystals and is…

Found by John Dory at Lithgow NSW, Australia. John states – The area had several shale mines at different times. These ones are from an area that mined shale from 1890 to 1920. . . . . Below – Atlas – Atlas Brickworks, Bathville, Armadale, West Lothian. Below – Morningside – Morningside Fireclay Works, Newmains,…

Found by Ian Suddaby at Ravenscraig, Motherwell. This example is not in my possession. Morningside Fireclay Works, Wishaw, Lanarkshire. . . .

Found by Julian Phillips at Lithgow, New South Wales, Australia. . . . . Below – Morningside – Morningside Fireclay Works, Newmains, North Lanarkshire. . Below – Atlas – Atlas Brickworks, Bathville, Armadale, West Lothian. These ‘Atlas’ bricks were found alongside the ‘Morningside 01’ brick above and are likely to have Scottish origins although several…

28/12/1895 – Alloa Advertiser – New coal and clay supply – A Cowdenbeath firm have opened a shaft at Blairingone near to the established Church Manse there and are getting a good supply of coal. The seam of coal is 3 1/2 feet thick and above and below the seam is a 2 1/2 foot…

19/11/1949 – The Scotsman – New fireclay mine at Niddrie. Messrs Steele Bros of the Niddrie Fireclay Works have started the driving of a fireclay mine close to the burn which forms the Edinburgh City boundary south of Niddrie. Hitherto the firm has drawn its fireclay supplies from Lanarkshire but boring revealed the possibility of…

Found by Gary Underhill at Goldfield, Nevada, USA. This was a surface find near the site of an 1860s bank building in Goldfield. . . . Below – Morningside – Morningside Fireclay Works, Newmains, North Lanarkshire, Scotland.

Robertson, Love & Co were liquidated in 1916 but continued to make firebricks as part of United Collieries Ltd. When coal was nationalised in 1947, the brickworks were reorganised as United Fireclay Products Ltd. and comprised the Etna and Atlas Firebrick Works, the Bathville Pipe Works, the UNICOL Tileworks, all at Armadale and the Brownhill…